Dr. Fenton encouraged health care professionals to offer HIV testing as a regular part of medical care, as recommended by the CDC, with those at high risk being tested at least once a year. Because treatment also helps prevent transmission, health care providers should make sure that their patients with HIV infection are aware of the importance of ART and viral suppression – particularly among black gay and bisexual men – and should provide counseling about prevention, with referral to other preventive services as needed. Although many people with HIV are linked to care after they are diagnosed, they lose the connections to care for various reasons, so he encouraged health care providers to help patients get linked back to care.
In the 3 years that followed the CDC’s 2006 recommendation that HIV testing should be offered to all people aged 13-64 years, 2.8 million people were tested and 18,000 learned they were infected with HIV, Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the CDC’s division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, said during the briefing.
The launch of a new CDC campaign aimed at black gay and bisexual men to get tested for HIV was also announced during the briefing. The campaign includes national print and online ads, a Web site, and a Facebook page. Black gay and bisexual men are disproportionately affected by HIV, accounting for about 22% of new infections, but most do not know they are infected, according to the CDC.
*Correction, 11/30/2011: The number of U.S. patients who are unaware of their HIV status was misstated. This version has been corrected.